Pentecost
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40 free Pentecost trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Pentecost is the feast the church counts as its birthday. The second chapter of Acts tells of a noise from heaven, flames that settled on a room full of nervous believers, and a crowd of pilgrims who each heard the message in a native language. It is one of the oldest celebrations in the Christian year, and it borrowed its date from a Jewish harvest festival that is older still. This quiz starts with the Bible story: who preached, what the mockers said, and how the listeners responded. It then moves through the calendar and the liturgy, with questions on vestment colors, the seasons on either side of the feast, Catholic devotions, Orthodox customs and the early leaders of Methodism. A last group follows Whitsun out of the church door, to a hillside race, village music contests, a South Pacific island and a poem set on a train. It suits church school classes, youth groups, Bible study leaders planning a Pentecost session, and anyone who likes knowing why a holy day looks the way it does. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which extreme sport grew out of the land diving ritual of Pentecost Island in the South Pacific?
Bungee jumping
Bungee jumping began after Oxford students discussed the islanders of Vanuatu, who leap from wooden platforms with vines tied to their ankles. Unlike the students, land divers mean to touch the ground.
Q 02Firefighters shower rose petals through the roof of which ancient building in Rome at Pentecost?
The Pantheon
The Pantheon has a round opening at the top of its dome, and the petals drift down through it onto the congregation. They recall the tongues of fire in the Pentecost story.
Q 03Which food is chased down Cooper's Hill in a Gloucestershire race that was long held on Whit Monday?
A cheese wheel
A cheese wheel of Double Gloucester weighing up to nine pounds is sent down the steep slope ahead of the runners. The race later moved from Whit Monday to the Spring Bank Holiday.
Q 04Which explorer named Australia's Whitsunday Passage for the feast day his calendar showed when he found it in 1770?
James Cook
James Cook named the passage for the feast because his own calendar showed Whit Sunday when the Endeavour sailed through. The 74 Whitsunday Islands off Queensland later took their name from his label.
Q 05What did mockers in the Pentecost crowd of Acts 2 say was wrong with the apostles?
They were drunk
They were drunk on new wine, the mockers claimed. The apostles' reply was practical: it was only the third hour of the day, about nine in the morning.
Q 06Which legendary king, in Malory's telling, would not eat at Pentecost until he had seen a marvel?
Arthur
Arthur kept the custom at the Round Table, so Pentecost is when many of his knights' quests begin. Malory has Galahad take the seat reserved for the Grail knight on Whitsunday.
Q 07In which country do about a million pilgrims travel, many on horseback or by wagon, to El Rocío each Pentecost?
Spain
Spain sees the pilgrims converge on a village shrine in Andalusia, where each brotherhood arrives behind an animal-drawn cart carrying its emblem of the Virgin. Many sleep outdoors on the way.
Q 08Which bird's carved figure was lowered through a hole in medieval church roofs at Pentecost?
A dove
A dove figure came down through the round opening as the Pentecost story was read. In the Middle Ages live birds are thought to have been released through the hole instead.
Q 09The name Pentecost comes from a Greek word with which meaning, a nod to its timing after Easter?
Fiftieth
Fiftieth is the sense of the Greek pentekoste, because the feast falls seven weeks after Easter when Easter Sunday itself is counted. Greek-speaking Jews first used the word for their own Feast of Weeks.
Q 10Which color do Western churches wear at Pentecost, recalling the tongues of fire in Acts 2?
Red
Red stands for joy and for the fire of the Holy Spirit, and many congregations now dress in it too. Eastern Orthodox churches choose green instead and fill the building with branches.
Q 11Which apostle stood up with the eleven and preached the first sermon to the crowd at Pentecost?
Peter
Peter told the crowd that the scene fulfilled an ancient prophecy of God pouring out his Spirit on sons and daughters alike. He ended by urging his listeners to repent and be baptized.
Q 12In Acts 2, the day of Pentecost opens with a sound from heaven that is compared to what?
A rushing wind
A rushing wind is how the noise is described, and it filled the whole house where the believers were sitting. Some churches hire trumpeters at Pentecost to recall it.
Q 13In which city were the apostles gathered when the Holy Spirit came upon them at the first Pentecost?
Jerusalem
Q 21Which Jewish harvest festival, seven weeks after Passover, drew pilgrims to the first Pentecost?
Shavuot
Shavuot is one of three festivals when Jews travelled to the Temple, which explains the international crowd in the Pentecost story. Christians later timed their own feast from Easter instead.
Q 22The Jewish festival behind Pentecost recalls God giving the law to Moses on which mountain?
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai is where Jewish tradition places the giving of the Ten Commandments, seven weeks after the Exodus from Egypt. Christians saw a parallel in the Spirit arriving on the same feast.
Q 23Which biblical book, set during a barley harvest, is read in synagogues at the Feast of Weeks?
Ruth
Jerusalem was full of Jewish pilgrims for the Feast of Weeks, which is why visitors from so many nations heard the apostles. Jesus had told his followers to wait in the city.
Q 14Which prophet's vision of sons and daughters prophesying is quoted in the Acts 2 Pentecost sermon?
Joel
Joel had foretold that God would pour out his Spirit on all people, the old dreaming dreams and the young seeing visions. The sermon presents the Pentecost scene as that promise coming true.
Q 15According to Acts 2, roughly how many people were added to the believers on the day of Pentecost?
About 3,000
About 3,000 joined in a single day, a huge jump from the 120 or so believers who had been meeting before the feast. That growth is why Pentecost is called the birthday of the Church.
Q 16Who was chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot among the twelve apostles shortly before Pentecost?
Matthias
Matthias won the draw against Joseph Barsabbas, restoring the apostles to twelve. He is the only member of the Twelve not picked by Jesus in person.
Q 17Which Gospel writer is traditionally credited with Acts, the book that recounts the first Pentecost?
Luke
Luke is the name tradition gives the author, a doctor who travelled with the apostle Paul. Acts and the third Gospel are two volumes by the same hand.
Q 18In Acts 2, the Pentecost crowd is amazed that every one of the speakers comes from which region?
Galilee
Galilee was the northern home region of Jesus and most of the apostles, so the crowd was astonished to hear each visitor's native language coming from them.
Q 19The Pentecost crowd hearing many languages in Acts 2 is often read as echoing which Genesis story?
The Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel is where Genesis says human speech was scrambled and people were scattered. At Pentecost the many languages draw a crowd together instead.
Q 20The upper room tied by tradition to Pentecost is also revered as the site of which Gospel event?
The Last Supper
The Last Supper is placed by tradition in the same room, known as the Cenacle from the Latin for dining room. Pilgrims visit it on Mount Zion, just outside the old city walls.
Ruth is read because its story unfolds at harvest time, the season of the festival. Many Jews also stay up all night studying scripture and eat dairy dishes.
Q 24Which Thursday feast begins the nine days of prayer that lead up to Pentecost in many churches?
Ascension Day
Ascension Day marks Jesus being taken up to heaven, after which his followers prayed together until Pentecost. Those nine days are the model for every later novena.
Q 25Which feast follows Pentecost by a week in the West but names Pentecost itself among the Orthodox?
Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday was ordered for the whole Western church by Pope John XXII, who reigned from 1316 to 1334. It follows Pentecost because the doctrine was first preached after the Spirit came.
Q 26Western Pentecost moves with Easter each year but can only ever fall in which two months?
May and June
May and June cover every possible date, from May 10 at the earliest to June 13 at the latest. A holy day that shifts like this is known as a moveable feast.
Q 27Which season of the Catholic year, marked by green vestments, resumes the Monday after Pentecost?
Ordinary Time
Ordinary Time returns after a pause that began on Ash Wednesday, and it then runs unbroken until the day before Advent. It can total 33 or 34 weeks across the year.
Q 28Which sacrament, often given to teenagers by a bishop, is especially associated with Pentecost?
Confirmation
Confirmation is held at Pentecost in many churches because it is seen as passing on the gift the apostles received. Flowers, white robes and the laying on of hands all feature.
Q 29In the rosary, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost belongs to which set of mysteries?
Glorious
Glorious is the set that opens with the Resurrection, and Pentecost is its third scene. The Luminous set is far younger, proposed by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
Q 30Which pope made the Monday after Pentecost the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, for Catholics worldwide?
Francis
Francis added the feast to the Roman calendar in 2018. The title itself was declared much earlier by Paul VI, in a 1964 speech at the Second Vatican Council.